It's well known that PlayStation 3 consoles will be in short supply this holiday season, and potentially beyond. Sony still stands firm behind its promise of delivering 500,000 units at launch, with 400,000 reserved for North American and the rest for Japan. Sony, however, is now softening on its projection of being able to provide an additional 1.5 million PS3s before year's end and a total of 6 million by March 2007, Bloombergreports.

When the topic of such numbers came up in an interview with Jack Tretton, co-chairman of SCEA, he confessed that "the honest answer is [that the shipment numbers are] more of a target" rather than a confirmed count. Tretton also reiterated that production issues were the root of the problem.

Shortage of blue diode lasers required to manufacture Blu-ray drives continue to be the Achilles' heel in PlayStation 3 production. The shortage of components not only affect production of Sony's new console, but all Blu-ray machines. Even after suspending shipments of blue diode lasers for Blu-ray movie players, Sony still faces problems in meeting consumer demand.

With the expected shortage this holiday season, gamers have been at a frenzy in attempts to pre-order PlayStation 3. Some who managed to score a pre-order are not even planning to opening the box, but instead would rather take advantage of the rules of supply and demand by listing them on eBay at a large premium. In attempts to curb user dissatisfaction, eBay is canceling auctions of pre-orders until the product hits the market.

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